Dissident Journalist Becomes Latest to Confess on Chinese State TV

Continuing a recent trend of publicly shaming people perceived by authorities as a threat to the regime, China’s state broadcaster on Thursday aired footage of a veteran journalist confessing to leaking state secrets to an overseas website.

Gao Yu, 70, went missing in late April as authorities began rounding up known dissidents and activists ahead of the 25th anniversary of the June 4th crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square. The outspoken journalist, who has previously been jailed, was formally detained on suspicion of leaking state secrets on Thursday, the official Xinhua news agency said. It cited police saying she was suspected of sending an electronic copy of a highly sensitive document to an overseas website in 2013. It’s not clear to which document they were referring.

The CCTV footage, aired in both Chinese (see above) and English (below), shows Ms. Gao seated in a orange prison bib being interviewed by police. “I believe that what I did broke the law and harmed the interests of the country. This was extremely wrong,” she says in the Chinese version. “I sincerely and earnestly accept this lesson and I want to confess.”

Ms. Gao is the most recent in a long string of criminal suspects who have been paraded on state television admitting guilt before they’ve had a chance to face trial.

In August last year, Chinese-American venture capitalist and microblogger Charles Xue was shown confessing to spreading untrue information online after he was detained on suspicion of soliciting prostitutes. Also in August, CCTV ran footage of two handcuffed people with their faces blurred, believed to be British private investigator Peter Humphrey and his wife, saying they used illegal means to obtain personal information.

In October, reporter Cheng Yongzhou appeared on state TV in prison clothes saying he had been paid to publish fake reports under his name about one of China’s largest heavy-equipment manufacturers.

Rights advocates and lawyers have pointed to the televised confessions in questioning Beijing’s oft-expressed commitment to rule of law.

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